Cameroun was a French mandate territory in central Africa, now constituting the majority of the territory of the Republic of Cameroon.

The area of present-day Cameroon was integrated to French Equatorial Africa (AEF) during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century. However, in 1911 France ceded parts of the territory to German Cameroon, known as Neukamerun (Middle Congo) as a result of the Agadir Crisis, and it became a German protectorate. During World War I, it was occupied by British and French troops, and later mandated to each country by the League of Nations in 1922. The British mandate was known as Cameroons and the French as Cameroun. Following World War II each of the mandate territories was made a United Nations Trust Territory. An insurrection headed by Ruben Um Nyobé and the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) erupted in 1955, strongly repressed by the French Fourth Republic. Cameroun became independent as the Republic of Cameroun in January, 1960 and in October, 1961 the southern part of British Cameroons joined to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The Muslim northern part of Cameroons had opted for union with Nigeria in May the same year. The conflict with the UPC lasted until the 1970s.

Interwar period

After World War I, Cameroun was not integrated to French Equatorial Africa (AEF) but made a "Comissariat de la République autonome" under French mandate. France enacted an assimilationist policy with the aim of having German presence forgotten, by teaching French on all of the territory and imposing French law, while pursuing the "indigenous politics", which consisted of keeping control of the judiciary system and of the police, while tolerating traditional law issues. The colonial administration also followed public health policies (Eugène Jamot did some research on sleeping sickness) as well as encouraging Francophony. Charles Atangana, designed paramount chief by the Germans, and others local chiefs were invited to France, and Paul Soppo Priso named president of the JEUCAFRA (Cameroun French Youth). Charles Atangana would visit the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition and attend the 1935 French Colonial Conference. France took care to make disappear all remains of German presence, and aimed at eradicating any trace of Germanophilia. The Cameroons quickly grew into a thriving civilization which was completely self sufficient.

After World War II: colonial tensions and beginning of the war

After World War II, Cameroun was made a United Nations Trust Territory and unified into the French Union. From the beginning of the 1940s, colonial authorities encouraged a policy of agricultural diversification into monocultural crops: coffee in the west and cotton in the south. Construction of roads allowed for greater exploitation of wood. Of a total of three million inhabitants, the Cameroun territory counted 10% settlers, many who had been resident for decades, and approximatively 15,000 people linked to the colonial administration (civil servants, private agents, missionaries, etc.) [

In 1946, a Representative Assembly of Cameroun (ARCAM) was constituted. Paul Ajoulat and Alexandre Douala Manga Bell were elected deputies of the French National Assembly. Some private and public schools were opened, while the best students were sent to Dakar (Senegal) or France to study in college. The colonial administration also built electricity and water infrastructures in large cities. In 1952, the Representative Assembly became the Territorial Assembly of Cameroun (ATCAM).

The Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), an anti-colonialist party created in 1948 and which struggled for unification of both Cameroons and for independence was outlawed in 1955. A colonial war then started and lasted for at least seven years, with the French Fourth Republic leading a harsh repression of the anti-colonialist movement. The conflict found its roots in the opposition between the settlers and the Cameroonese trade-unionists in the cities. After the Brazzaville Conference of January 1944, during which the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) issued several promises concerning progressive self-rule, the settlers organized themselves in 1945 in "General estates of colonisation" (Etats généraux de la colonisation").

A Cercle d'études marxistes (Marxist Study Circle) was created by Cameroonese in 1945, soon followed by the creation of the USCC (Union des syndicats confédérés du Cameroun, Union of Confederate Trade-Unions of Cameroon) at the initiative of the CGT trade-union. Conflicts erupted in September 1945, with the settlers violently debating with the French governor. Members of the USCC were arrested. In 1948, Ruben Um Nyobé became the head of the resistance movement, with a nationalist and revolutionary program. Nyobé's UPC was at first only the local section of the African Democratic Rally created in 1946. However, it refused to split, as did the African Democratic Rally, with the French Communist Party (PCF) in 1950. After some revolts and increasing tensions with the colonial administration, the UPC was outlawed on July 13, 1955 by the governor Roland Pré, forcing Nyobé into hiding, from where he led a guerrilla war against the French administration.

Self rule in 1956 and continuation of the war

In 1956-58, Pierre Messmer, a Gaullist and head of the haut-commissaire of Cameroun (executive branch of the French government) started a decolonisation process which went further than the 1956 loi-Defferre (Defferre Act). At the same time, the Fourth Republic was stranded in the Algerian War (1954-62). It managed to obtain support of Britain in Cameroon.

France granted internal autonomy in 1956, and the ATCAM became the Legislative Assembly of Cameroun (ALCM). André Marie Boffera became Prime minister in 1957, and Ahmadou Ahidjo vice-Premier. Despite the requests by Rubem Um Nyobe, head of the UPC, the new government refused to legalize the UPC. André Bdida renounced in 1958, replaced by Ahidjo, while Um Nyobé was killed by a French commando in the "maquis" on September 13, 1958. Following his death, the UPC divided itself, while competing leaders, verbally in favor of Marxism revolution, radicalized the movement. Starting in 1959, the colonial war juxtaposed itself with a civil war, Ahmadou Ahidjo taking the place of France in the repression of the UPC. The successor of Nyobé, Félix-Roland Moumié, was assassinated in 1960 in Geneva by the SDECE, French secret services.

The insurrection continued after independence was granted, even though the UPC had been officially dismantled. The rebellion was really crushed only in the 1970s, after the death in the "maquis" of Ossendé Afana in March 1966 and the public execution of Ernest Ouandié, a historic leader of the UPC, in January 1971.

Estimates about the number of victims of the war ranged around several tens of thousands of deaths, mainly after independence, although some have given numbers much higher (300 000 to 400 000, which exceeds the total number of inhabitants of Bamileke, which was the main theater of operation.) Despite the efforts of writer Mongo Beti, the war and the harsh repression by the French government has been overshadowed by the Algerian War, mostly because of the use of professional soldiers, the low number of Cameroonese immigrants in France requesting recognition of the crimes committed during the war, and, more recently, the fall of Communism.

Cameroun became independent on January 1, 1960, becoming the Republic of Cameroun. The civil war with the UPC lasted for years afterward.